BRIMNES goes glam as a dining room credenza

The three BRIMNES cabinets strung together filled a long dining room wall as a credenza. Furthermore, their 37-3/8″ height filled vertical space in a room with a high ceiling better than a typical 30″ console/sideboard height.

While the clean lines and black finish make the BRIMNES modern, I wanted to add a touch of elegance.

The smoked glass top adds shine, hides BRIMNES seams and provides an easy-to-clean surface for use as sideboard when entertaining.

IKEA BRIMNES dining room credenza

Related: Regaining storage with end to end alcove shelving


I was searching for extra-long pulls in polished nickel to contrast the black cabinets, which were hard to find with 4″ hole centers.

I found the 7-1/4″ acrylic cabinet pulls with polished nickel details at Ballard Design, though upon receiving the pulls, learned that the 4″ spacing didn’t quite align with the European dimension for the pre-drilled cabinet pulls on the BRIMNES. Hence, the hack!

IKEA items used: 

IKEA BRIMNES Cabinet | Buy on IKEA.com

Other materials and tools: 

  • Custom smoked glass top 
  • Ballard Design acrylic/polished nickel pulls.

Turn BRIMNES into a dining room credenza

Assemble and place the three black BRIMNES cabinets together to form the dining room sideboard. You may join them together, if required. This is quite easily done by fixing screws from the inside of one cabinet to the other. Use screws shorter than the thickness of two side panels.

Then, I added a custom smoked glass top cut to the length of the 3 BRIMNES top panels. The panel hides the seams between cabinets and amps up the style.

The last step was to change the handles to acrylic/polished nickel pulls to contrast with the black cabinets and refine the overall design.

But I encountered a slight problem.

The 4″ acrylic pulls misaligned with the pre-drilled holes for BRIMNES by approximately .5 centimeter. I used a drill to slightly elongate each hole to accommodate the Ballard Design pulls.

Acrylic pulls

I used a thin polished nickel washer as a decorative detail to hide the elongated hole and help secure the pull to the cabinet.

Acrylic pulls

In the end it turned out really well.

Acrylic pulls for IKEA BRIMNES dining room credenza
How long and how much did it cost?  
  • Qty. 3 Brimnes $240.
  • Custom glass $335.
  • Qty. 6 acrylic pulls $95.

Total: $670

What do you like most about the hack?  

How the three BRIMNES cabinets fill the space and extra design details customize these modern, though otherwise utilitarian cabinets.

IKEA BRIMNES dining room credenza
What was the hardest part about this hack? 

Keeping a steady hand while using the power drill to elongate the cabinet holes.

~ by Julie Carpenter